The project, launching this spring in four downtown stores, is part of a public-private King County initiative called <a href="https://kcrha.org/resources/partnership-for-zero/#:~:text=Starting%20with%20the%20premise%20that,targeted%20areas%20of%20King%20County.">Partnership for Zero (PFZ)</a>

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Every day, every shift, through the window of the Starbucks store she manages on 1st and Pike in downtown Seattle, Manuiki Welsh Coleman has a front-row view of some of the city’s most pressing public challenges: homelessness, substance use disorder, crime, mental health breakdowns.

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She knows some of the people on the streets by name. There’s Martin, who used to come in every day and report how many consecutive days he’d been sober. And Thomas, super friendly, who’d hang out with a cup of coffee and chat. Others pop in regularly, looking for sugar or hot water.

“One thing I really try to push to my partners (employees) and those that visit us is the idea of community, and what does it mean to be the anchor in your community,” said Welsh Coleman, who’s been a manager for almost a year. “What can you do to broaden your horizons and go past the four walls and reach out to those around us?”

But sometimes, problems spill into her store lobby, or her store bathroom. Sometimes she has to call the police or the paramedics. It’s a precarious balance of business, compassion and empathy, she explains – trying to treat people with dignity while setting hard boundaries.

“It’s been kind of eye-opening,” she said.

This spring, to help alleviate the burden on partners like Welsh Coleman while also trying to address some of the city’s challenges, Starbucks is taking part in a unique pilot program.

Starbucks will offer four of its stores in downtown Seattle and the Chinatown-International District – two neighborhoods with some of the highest concentrations of homelessness in the city – to a public-private countywide initiative called <a href="https://kcrha.org/resources/partnership-for-zero/#:~:text=Starting%20with%20the%20premise%20that,targeted%20areas%20of%20King%20County.">Partnership for Zero (PFZ)</a>, designed to get people off the streets into housing.

Each of the four stores will be a safe, clean, welcoming space where PFZ System Advocates – case managers with lived experience being homeless – can connect with those needing to navigate social services, fill out paperwork and get on the path to permanent housing. It’s kind of an “office hours” concept designed to provide a consistent place to meet.

“For those living outside, they view Starbucks as a community center,” said James Sizemore, a PFZ Lead System Advocate. “Saying, hey, let’s meet at the Starbucks, versus, let’s meet on that corner, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of that. They’ll get a coffee. They’ll know it’ll be warm. It helps with consistency in relationships and services, helps with staying in constant contact.”

PFZ is managed and led by the <a href="https://kcrha.org/">King County Regional Homelessness Authority</a>, and uses an approach that treats homelessness as a public health emergency, which allows it to draw federal funds, and other techniques that distinguish it from previous efforts in this space. A centralized Housing Command Center helps coordinate and streamline actions and resources. And a “By Name List” details the specific information that each client needs to move to stability – for example, whether they have a pet, or they’re traveling with a partner, or they also need help with a substance use disorder.

Starbucks is part of the <a href="https://wearein.org/">We Are In coalition</a>, which directs money and resources from businesses and philanthropies into Partnership for Zero.&nbsp;

‘Be a part of solutions in our communities’

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The four-store pilot program builds on Starbucks long legacy of trying to uplift local communities. In March 2020, Starbucks launched the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/25/homeless-at-starbucks-social-workers-outreach">Starbucks Outreach Worker program</a> in eight cities, partnering high-complexity Starbucks stores with hyperlocal non-profit organizations who have expertise in outreach and homelessness.

The Outreach Worker and PFZ programs are designed to be complementary. All four stores in the pilot will have both programs.

"Our goal is to be a part of solutions in our communities, and we are doing that by listening to our partners and leveraging experts in this space to drive change,” said Michelle Burns, Starbucks executive vice president of global coffee, social impact and sustainability. “Our hope is that our stores and our partners can be a part of reducing unsheltered homelessness."

Other ways Starbucks is taking on these issues include supporting organizations doing the work, like <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/starbucks-united-way-marys-place-and-wellspring-welcome-uw-to-coalition-supporting-local-unsheltered-families/">Mary’s Place and Wellspring Family Services</a>, which serve families experiencing homelessness in Seattle. Starbucks is also <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2022/were-all-one-community-starbucks-outreach-worker-program-supports-safe-welcoming-stores-addresses-homelessness/">convening experts and stakeholders</a> for frank discussions around homelessness; in the past year, gatherings happened in Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.

And, Starbucks is expanding outreach support into the SODO neighborhood where Starbucks is headquartered, partnering with the SODO Business Improvement Area (BIA), which represents property owners and businesses. This initiative comes as more than 3,000 partners returned to work in person at the Starbucks Support Center earlier this year. &nbsp;

“Starbucks stores are kind of at the front line,” said Erin Goodman, executive director of the SODO BIA. “These people are going to be in the stores anyway, so let’s make them welcome and part of the community and work with them in a different way than them being an interloper.

“That’s important,” Goodman said. “You get to set community guidelines. We’re glad you’re here but here are the expectations we have for everybody.”

Welsh Coleman, the store manager at 1st and Pike, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2022/starbucks-unveils-heritage-market-with-three-seattle-hometown-stores-dedicated-to-honoring-past-present-and-future-of-coffee-and-community/">one of the Starbucks Heritage Market stores</a>, sees obvious benefits. &nbsp;

Not only will the system advocates work directly with clients, Sizemore, the PFZ lead, says they’ll also be able to offer informal guidance and knowledge to store partners about topics like de-escalation techniques, awareness of triggers and trauma, and reading body language. The system advocates can also help with the right-sized response and resource, so the first call isn’t always to 911.

“I feel so much excitement for what’s to come and what we can do,” Welsh Coleman said, after a recent discussion at her store where the program was introduced to her and her partners. “The system advocates we met were incredible human beings, and the amount of work they do is unrecognized and underappreciated. Taking the time to know the heroes in the city was a cool experience to have.

“Their ideas are really going to help. I’m excited to see what we can do together, and how we can have an impact on our community.”

Woman in Starbucks Pike Place tshirt offers tray of coffee samples in a group at the Pike Place Starbucks store

The project, launching this spring in four downtown stores, is part of a public-private King County initiative called Partnership for Zero (PFZ).

Starbucks to pilot new solutions in key Seattle stores to help unsheltered community members find housing

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Eric was homeless for more than 10 years in Seattle. A lifelong alcoholic, he’d spend his days outside a Starbucks store in north Seattle, along a busy stretch of highway notorious for crime. He’d use the free WIFI and chat with the store manager, Ryan Butler, when he stepped out during breaks.

“He was cool with me, he’d talk to me, gave me some coffee a couple times,” Eric recalls. “Starbucks is one of the few places you can go when you’re on the street, and they don’t chase you away.”

Through an innovative partnership called the Starbucks Outreach Worker program – that connects Starbucks stores across the country with local organizations focused on homelessness – Butler was able to refer Eric to a social worker named Denver Hanson, the Starbucks outreach worker with <a href="https://ccsww.org/">Catholic Community Services in Seattle</a>.

During weekly meetings over an eight-month period, Hanson helped Eric get identification and apply for housing, tracking down hard-to-find documents he needed from out of state. In January, Eric moved off the streets, into his own apartment.

The Starbucks Outreach Worker Program, which launched in 2020 and recently expanded into its eighth U.S. city, is a unique partnership between Starbucks and nonprofits that have street outreach expertise. The goal is to support retail partners (employees) while also addressing societal issues like homelessness, mental health and substance use disorder. The program was designed in response to partners sharing the challenges they face in high complexity markets. It’s currently in in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver.

In each city, outreach workers dedicated to the program regularly visit Starbucks stores in high-incident areas (for example, near a homeless encampment). They walk around the nearby neighborhood and engage people who are marginalized or at-risk – identifying and responding to immediate needs, making referrals and trying to build long-term relationships. They check in with store partners to help address issues on the spot (if there was a shoplifting incident, for example, or if someone is not getting out of the bathroom) and follow up with the homeless customers they already know, who might be nearby.

In some cities, they also design curriculum and training experiences with Starbucks leaders and store partners around issues like mental and behavioral health and crisis de-escalation.

Nationwide, outreach workers through the program have engaged approximately 16,000 people experiencing homelessness. Of those, about 3,000 have been referred into a “stabilizing program” such as transitional housing, mental health resources or case management.

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Meeting customers’ needs with empathy and compassion

Starbucks often is used by many customers as their third place – the place they go that’s not their home or work – but “we know many of our customers who are homeless use Starbucks as their first place,” says Julissa McWashington, Starbucks social impact manager overseeing the program. “And we know that partners who wear the green apron want to meet the needs of their customers with empathy and compassion.

“So how might we support Starbucks partners, and also connect our customers to critical need resources, and positively impact our communities?... It’s the responsibility of us all to hold hands and figure out how to do this collectively. We’re all one community. The public and private sector can do more together and do it in a way where we’re thinking about the person and the human behind all of this.”

Expanding partnerships is key. Starbucks is working with Arizona State University to help scale and evolve the Outreach Worker program – by testing out new organizational structures, engaging in policy advocacy and developing broader, industry-wide training and curriculum opportunities.

Bringing public and private advocates together

In June, Starbucks also held two “convenings,” in Seattle and New York City, bringing together dozens of key stakeholders to meet in the same space and talk frankly about homelessness – police departments, public libraries, boots-on-the-ground outreach organizations, elected officials, philanthropic funders and other companies. Two more convenings are planned for later this year in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

One of the featured panelists at the New York convening was Carley Medley with <a href="https://breakingground.org/">Breaking Ground</a>, a homeless outreach organization which also runs the largest supportive housing program in the country. As an outreach supervisor, she and her team are responsible for checking in and around 15 Starbucks stores throughout Manhattan, focusing especially on several n Midtown. Daily, she crisscrosses a different kind of overlay map than the usual tourist-oriented spots nearby. &nbsp;

On a recent summer day, next to a methadone clinic near Times Square, across the street from a Starbucks, she gives socks to a man she recognizes - recently discharged from a hospital, stitches still fresh in his head – and asks about the status of a transitional housing application he was working on.

At a subway stop near Madison Square Garden, a man recognizes her green Breaking Ground jacket and says he needs detox, rehab and shelter. She takes his information – where he hangs out, what kinds of services he’s used before, what hospitals he’s gone to – and then makes plans to take him to a temporary shelter.

Earlier in the day, next to a church shelter nearby, she did her weekly check in with a woman in her 60s, who’s in a wheelchair. She brought some ointment for the woman’s leg injury and lent her a cell phone to call a family member.

“Getting to know our clients is a good portion of my day, getting to know their stories, building those relationships,” Medley says. “I just want to be helpful, getting somebody a shirt or shoes, getting people connected with substance abuse programs, treatment programs, counseling, transitional housing. This is impactful, even though the problem is still huge.

“Some of these clients have been in the system their entire lives,” she says. “Everyone is a person. Everyone has a story. Whether or not it’s similar to yours, we need to be a little more empathetic and understanding.”

‘We are a people business’

Eric, the formerly homeless man in Seattle, is thankful for that kind of perspective and effort, and for the program.

“I almost gave up,” Eric says. “Somebody stole my backpack, and it had my birth certificate that I’d just got (that he needed for his state-issued identification application). I was crushed. I wanted to give up. It was gone, and Denver was like, ‘We’ll get it again. Let’s keep doing this.’ Because of this program, I was able to get my ID, and an apartment. I’m super grateful.”

Butler, the Starbucks store manager who first referred Eric, still meets with him occasionally at a public library near his store.

“We are a people business, and the coffee is secondhand,” Butler says. “If we don’t take the time to acknowledge the community’s needs and give back to the community, then why are we here?”

The unique partnership between the public and private sectors, which recently expanded into its eighth U.S. city, takes on complex societal issues like mental health, substance abuse and housing.

‘We’re all one community’: Starbucks Outreach Worker Program supports safe and welcoming stores, addresses national issue of homelessness

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‘We’re all one community’: Starbucks Outreach Worker Program supports safe and welcoming stores, addresses homelessness

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